Volunteer!

Juniper Level Botanic Gardens and Plant Delights Nursery

We enjoy sharing our love and appreciation of these plants with our volunteers; learning the plants’ cultural requirements, and the ability to follow their growth through complete yearly cycles is an excellent educational experience. Our volunteer program at Juniper Level Botanic Garden introduces our volunteers to many plant genera which are unknown to the general gardening public. Seeing the beauty of nature through our volunteers’ eyes renews and refreshes our own appreciation – and the friendship and hard work of our volunteer staff helps keep the quality of the Garden at its best.

Volunteers at JLBG are committed to quality gardening and love the outdoors, and anything green (whether it flowers or not!). As a volunteer, you will gain new information, fresh ideas, renewed spirits, and the friendship and appreciation of the Juniper Level Botanic Garden family – with your efforts our days are much richer indeed!

If you are interested in digging into JLBG, please email volunteer@jlbg.org with your name and what you're interested in doing.

Image of volunteers at Juniper Level Botanic Garden.

Benefits of Being Involved

  • Get to hang out with cool plant people
  • Learn new things about plants
  • Develop new skills
  • The occasional free plant
  • Good feeling of having contributed to a good cause!

Ways to Get Involved

  • You tell us! You have strengths, skills, and interests. Let us know when you're available and what you are interested in getting involved in. We have so many things going that we can find something inside and out for you to plug into.
  • Wednesday Garden Volunteers Every week a group of volunteers comes out to help with work going on in the Garden from 9 to 11:30 a.m. They weed, prune, dig plants, plant plants, mulch and help with seasonal cutbacks when the weather is good; and support our seed-cleaning and labeling efforts when it is gross outside. Each week is different. Most of the work is outside, but there are some inside days; and there are opportunities inside on days when you aren't feeling like working outside.
  • Thursday Garden Volunteers Every week a group of volunteers come out to help with work going on in the Garden from 9 to 11:30 a.m. They weed, prune, dig plants, plant plants, mulch and help with seasonal cutbacks when the weather is good; and support our seed-cleaning and labeling efforts when it is gross outside. Each week is different. Most of the work is outside, but there are some inside days; and there are opportunities inside on days when you aren't feeling like working outside.
  • Saturday Garden Volunteers About twice a month a group of weekend warriors gathers at the Garden to tackle weeds and other Garden projects. Most of the work is outside on these days. Stay tuned to the volunteer e-blast for specific dates.
  • General Garden Volunteers If the three other general volunteer times don’t work for you, you can contact Amanda Wilkins directly about when you would like to join the Garden crew on projects.
  • Seed Collector/Cleaning Assistant We collect seed from more than 3,000 different plants over the course of the year. All of those plants need to be visited, recorded, collected, cleaned and stored! Whoa! Whether you want to be in the field going plant-to-plant or would much rather be sifting through and cleaning the various types of seed in the Seed Room, this is the opportunity for you.
  • Archivist/Researcher Of course, one of the best parts of JLBG is the incredible collection of plants Tony has built up over his life. Sure, but he has also amassed an extensive collection of documents, books and other botanical memorabilia. The best way to make sure this is accessible is to have a catalog available for reference. If you are interested in learning how you can make the print collection more available and searchable, and don’t mind working at a computer, this is the job for you! This is good for people who are interested in coming out consistently, especially if they have an area of special interest.
  • Labeling Assistant The hallmark of any good botanical garden is to have every plant labeled in the Garden, and with thousands of plants spread out across 28-acres, that means there’s lots of tags to account for! This person would ideally be able to come out once a week and walk a portion of the Garden, scanning for tags. Duties include: writing down the names of broken tags; placing green landscape flags in front of plants with broken or missing tags; fixing tags so they are easy to see from paths; assembling printed tags; and/ helping the Garden Curator put out tags.
  • Data Entry Helper Our collection is only as good as our records and we keep an extensive computer database in Microsoft Access. Sometimes we need help with getting our notes from the field to the database and any time we don't have to sit at our computers is time we can plant more plants and conduct cutting-edge research. This person needs to have good computer skills, that can work with Microsoft Office products, use Internet browsers, and Google Drive products.
  • Open House Ambassador We always need smiling faces to greet visitors to Juniper Level Botanic Garden during our Open House days. This is a flexible commitment opportunity, where you can work a few hours or the whole weekend; whatever works for you. It is a lot of fun to hang out with other volunteers, catch the Garden Unplugged Talks (when they return), and meet all the keen folks who visit the Garden during these special times. Check out the schedule on the link below and see what days and times work good for you!

Image of volunteers manning the Welcome tent during our Open Nursery & Garden Days.

A Note on Physical Work in the Garden

Our volunteers in the Garden work at all gardening tasks, such as: planting, digging and dividing plants, bed maintenance, adding soil, edging, mulching beds, weeding, pruning, cutting back old growth, and deadheading flowering plants, just to name a few.

We work in most weather, except when extreme cold or heat, or steady rain keep us indoors. Potential volunteers must judge their own tolerance for weather, especially heat, and the amount of exertion you are capable of. You should be able to lift 25 lbs., push a wheelbarrow load of mulch, and have flexibility for weeding, etc. If you are uncertain of your physical abilities or concerned about your health, we can work on other opportunities for you.

If you are interested in digging into JLBG, please email volunteer@jlbg.org with your name and what you're interested in doing.

We look forward to seeing you around the Garden!